The State of California

The last debate is in the books, early voting has begun in a handful of states, and we are less than five weeks from a presidential election that remains too close to call.

Three different snap polls of debate-watching likely voters found almost identical results, suggesting last night’s CBS News vice presidential debate really was a tossup. The CBS poll gave JD Vance a 42-41% edge, the CNN poll said it was 51-49 for Vance, and Politico’s survey reported a dead heat, split 50-50. So neither side is likely to get any burst of momentum from that debate, leaving us with a month to go and the status quo, a campaign that Kamala Harris leads by 2 to 4 points nationally, but with seven battleground states that really could go either way, meaning the Electoral College is up for grabs.

For more on this, KCBS Radio anchor Patti Reising and KCBS Insider Doug Sovern were joined by David McCuan, political science professor at Sonoma State University. This is The State of California.

Tonight’s the night, the last scheduled debate of this presidential election cycle, this time between the candidates for vice president.

Democratic Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota and Republican Senator JD Vance of Ohio will face off in the CBS News Vice Presidential Debate, which you can hear live right here at 6pm.

This will be their only debate, and with former president Trump turning down the remaining invitations to debate Vice President Kamala Harris again, this is likely to be the last big event of this campaign, where millions of voters can see top candidates from the rival tickets go head to head. So there is a lot at stake, perhaps more than usual for a vice presidential debate, and especially in a race that is so close, basically a dead heat, where any little thing could be magnified enough to make a difference on Election Day.

For more, KCBS Insider Doug Sovern spoke with KCBS Radio anchor Patti Reising. This is The State of California.

Governor Newsom says NO to one of the most closely watched bills of the session in Sacramento, vetoing major legislation regulating artificial intelligence.

This is SB 1047, a bill by State Senator Scott Wiener of San Francisco, which would have imposed safeguards to make sure AI does not lead to what the bill calls “critical harms,” meaning major disasters or catastrophes. But the bill would only have applied to large scale models, without getting too technical here, and Governor Newsom said that made no sense, and while well-intentioned, since it would only cover companies using large systems, he decided it fell short. Big tech tycoons and companies lobbied heavily against this bill, urging Newsom to veto it, despite overwhelming support from voters surveyed about the legislation. The governor did sign more than a dozen other bills regulating AI.

For more on this, KCBS Radio anchor Patti Reising and KCBS Insider Doug Sovern were joined by Teri Olle, she is Director of Economic Security California Action, an organization that was one of the co-sponsors of the bill.

This is The State of California.

Despite opposition from Governor Newsom and others, a majority of voters support Prop 36.

To hear the case for Prop 36, KCBS insider Doug Sovern spoke with Napa County DA Allison Haley.

Californians seem poised to approve sweeping reforms to get tougher on crime, even though overall crime is falling

The latest polls show overwhelming support for Proposition 36, which would roll back some of the reforms voters approved ten years ago in Prop 47

Prop 36 is the most important issue on the November ballot, according to surveys of voters, and roughly 70% of them say they will vote for it. It would reclassify some of those lower level property crimes and drug possession offenses, so that prosecutors could treat them as felonies instead of misdemeanors. It would also mandate drug treatment instead of prison for people caught in possession of fentanyl, heroin, meth and some other drugs. The measure would also allow for longer prison time for a third conviction for shoplifting or burglary, or if three or more people commit the crime together, as in a retail smash-and-grab crime spree.

Tomorrow’s program will explore the arguments in favor of Proposition 36 with Napa County District Attorney Allison Haley, who supports it. For the opposing view, KCBS political reporter Doug Sovern, along with KCBS Radio news anchors Bret Burkhart and Patti Reising, spoke with John Vasquez, Policy & Legal Services Manager for CURYJ, which stands for Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice.

Governor Newsom is still plowing through hundreds of bills on his desk, one of which would change how California registers people to vote. Voter turnout will be key to this November’s election, and this bill is designed to bring more Californians into the electorate.

The measure is Senate Bill 299, and it would update California’s “motor voter” registration law. Right now, anyone who gets a driver’s license or state ID is automatically registered to vote too, as long as they indicate that they are eligible to vote. This new bill, if Governor Newsom signs it into law, would allow the Secretary of State, working with the DMV, to “pre-approve” applicants, streamlining the voter registration process.

For more, KCBS Radio anchors Patti Reising and Bret Burkhart, along with KCBS Insider Doug Sovern, were joined by Christopher Wilson, vice president of operations at the social justice political advocacy organization PowerPAC, and a member of the California Grassroots Democracy Coalition. This is the State of California.

California is suing ExxonMobil, a first-in-the-nation case accusing the oil giant of tricking consumers into thinking their plastic products are recyclable.

It’s a landmark case, filed by the state of California with a simultaneous action brought by four major Bay Area environmental groups. The lawsuit claims that ExxonMobil, the world’s largest producer of the polymers that are used to make single-use plastic, has for decades misled consumers by promoting the “chasing arrows” recycling symbol and implying that most of the plastics that bear that symbol can be recycled, when in fact only about 5% really are. Attorney General Rob Bonta says ExxonMobil produces the largest amount of plastic waste, which is fouling oceans and beaches and is turning up in human bloodstreams through microplastic particles that we inhale and ingest. KCBS has asked ExxonMobil for comment on the suit but we have not yet heard back.

For more on this, KCBS Radio anchor Holly Quan and KCBS Insider Doug Sovern were joined by Professor Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law School’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment. He leads the Climate Change and Business Research Initiative at both Berkeley and UCLA Schools of Law. This is The State of California.

Good afternoon, this is “The State, Of California,” Doug Sovern is away. Yesterday afternoon the SF Symphony took a turn with more than 150 musicians and patrons joining together to unite in a strike by the Sympony chorus against the Symphony. 

Music Director and Conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen's opening show in his final season was canceled just hours before the show started, indicating a strike with signs reading "No contract - No chrous."

For a closer look, KCBS Radio's Patti Reising and Bret Burkhart were joined by Joshua Kosman, Former Classical Music Critic from the San Francisco Chronicle.

Donald Trump and JD Vance have doubled down on their explosive and unfounded claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield are eating pets.

For more on this, KCBS Insider Doug Sovern and KCBS Radio anchors Patti Reising and Bret Burkhart were joined by Adriel Orozco, senior policy counsel at the American Immigration Council, a nonprofit that works to improve U.S. immigration policy.

 

There’s renewed focus on immigration as a presidential campaign issue, as Donald Trump and JD Vance continue to insist Haitian migrants are eating people’s pets in Ohio. What is really behind the GOP ticket’s continued emphasis on a rumor that has already been debunked?

Border security is certainly a core issue for the Republican candidates, and a perceived vulnerability for the the Democrats. The latest polling shows most voters agree with Donald Trump that the country should deport undocumented immigrants, and they think Trump will be stronger on immigration issues than Harris.

For more, KCBS Political Reporter Doug Sovern, along with KCBS Radio news anchors Bret Burkhart and Patti Reising, spoke with Anna Sampaio, Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies and Political Science at Santa Clara University.